Detecting Signals in Correlated Motion of the Fingers

Normally, when we explore or manipulate objects more than one of our fingers will come into contact with and move over a surface. Movement of the object or our fingers may give rise to different motion at each finger yet we retain a sense of a single object. We have investigated this by examining how correlated motion across the fingers may help detection of a kinaesthetic stimulus. We have found lowered thresholds for detecting stimuli in the presence of positively correlated background movement compared to negatively or uncorrelated background movement. In future experiments we will investigate the effect of positive correlation by varying time differences between the movements at the fingers.